Headed by one of the Mayor's three executive assistants, this unit coordinated relations with the various boards and
commissions, the City Council, state & federal governments, and local, national, and international organizations. It
managed press and international relations, liaison with the Council and state legislature, and liaison with the various
political organizations. Intergovernmental Relations staff represented the Mayor at conferences outside the city and
acted as liaison with the U.S. Conference of Mayors and National League of Cities (although this latter function later
came under the umbrella of the Special Assistant to the Mayor).

The archives holds records of several sub-units of Intergovernmental Relations, namely the Public Information Office,
the International Relations Office, and the Legislation Coordination Office. Records of the Executive Assistant, James
Chubbuck, were not transferred.

This agency replaced the old Public Relations Office. It was to provide/coordinate media relations and ceremonial
functions for the city, produce employee publications [Hall Talk, the City Hall magazine, ceased publication with the
June/July, 1984 edition], take photographs of city government activities & maintain the file of photographs, staff special
projects, and provide information over the telephone.

The records include subject files, sound and video recordings, press releases, and clipping
files. Arranged in
alphabetical order by folder title, the subject files illustrate the varied functions that the Public Information Office
performed for the Mayor and his administration. Most of the subject headings are self explanatory as they relate to
individual city departments and municipal activities.

The Mayor--General files contain correspondence and other documents that were handled for the
Mayor by the Public
Information staff; many of these are of a personal nature (including materials that might more appropriately be in the
Mayor's Mementos file). The Monitor Reports summarize city-related stories carried by the
local television news
programs (Public Information staff members were assigned to view the programs and report on relevant coverage). In
the Wood, Bette folder is a copy of chapter two from her manuscript Managing Crisis Cities.

The sound recordings include cassettes of press conferences, political speeches and related materials, public service
announcements, public meetings (including hearings and City Council appearances), interviews, radio program
appearances, and speeches. There is also a small group of miscellaneous recordings and an uninventoried box of
microcassette recordings, mainly of one-on-one meetings/interviews with media representatives.

The clippings files are arranged alphabetically by subject and grouped together by year. They have not been inventoried
on the folder title level. Generally one can expect to find folders on individual city departments and other governmental
agencies as well as on significant topics of concern to city government. Most of the clippings are from local newspapers
and other publications, but materials from the national/international press also are represented.

Press releases are available for January, 1978-December, 1983 and for September,
1985-April,
1986. They are
arranged in chronological order. These documents are in the process (as of March, 1994) of being microfilmed, thus
no
detailed inventory is included below.

The video recordings have not yet been fully arranged and inventoried. Included are
cassettes (both VHS and BETA
format) as well as older tapes in various sizes and formats. Represented in the collection are political commercials,
public service announcements, copies of news programs on which the Mayor appeared as a guest, and copies of news
programs dealing with New Orleans. Also included are remnants of Public Information's local television news
monitoring operation, in which staff members recorded the evening news shows for review presumably of the way in
which City Hall was portrayed. Tapes apparently were reused following staff review. The surviving tapes contain all or
portions of the news programming for scattered dates.

In addition to these files the archives also holds a set of Hall Talk and a file of photographic prints produced by the
Public Information staff. Consult the archives staff for access to these materials.

In the Morial administration the International Relations Office was responsible for handling the city's relationships with
foreign countries in order to promote trade and economic development through tourism and import/export activities. Its
origins were in the old Public Relations Office within the Mayor's Office and, as such, it tended to play more of a
"goodwill" role than an economic development one. Through the Mayor's International Trade and Relations Committee
the Office cooperated with other local foreign trade agencies such as International House, the International Trade Mart,
and the Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans. In addition to its general functions, the Office also acted as
liaison between City Hall and the local Consular Corps and worked with the U.S. Department of State's Inter
Communications Agency visitor program.

Also included are records dating from the administration of Moon Landrieu, 1970-1978. These
documents appear to
have been retained in the International Relations Office beyond the end of Landrieu's terms in office; they were later
transferred to the archives along with the files from the Morial years. There is also a series of International Relations
Office records in the Landrieu papers within the City Archives.

The legislative coordination staff within the Mayor's Office was responsible for lobbying and monitoring city-related
legislation at the local, state, and national levels. Staff members handled state matters directly, but the city contracted
with Washington contacts to provide lobbying services on the federal level.

The records in this small sub-group document city government's relations with the state legislature. Among the records
are files dealing with individual topics as well as files dealing more generally with capital requests, the city's own
legislative package, and the impact of pending bills on the city and its interests. The latter concern is documented in the
folders headed "House Bills -- Reports, etc." and "Senate Bills -- Reports, etc." Included therein are various forms used
by researchers and/or department heads to record their opinions as to the positive or negative aspects for the city of
individual bills. In some cases other documentation is included for certain bills (legislative committee reports, vote
tallies, etc.).